About us

Aerial view of BIO in Dartmouth, N.S.


 

GSC Atlantic

GSC Atlantic is :

  • the principal marine geoscience facility in Canada
  • a division of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC)
  • co-located at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
  • a part of an Atlantic Provinces marine research and technology community centred in the Halifax-Dartmouth metropolitan region of Nova Scotia
  • a team of 80 specialists in marine and petroleum geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and geotechnology
  • a source of integrated knowledge and advice on marine geoscience, with specific concentration on Canada's coastal and offshore landmass

Scientific Capabilities are :

  • integrated scientific concepts, databases, and state-of-the-art interpretive maps of Canada's coasts and sea floor and the underlying sedimentary basins since 1971
  • state-of-the-art computing infrastructure (including 2- and 3-D seismic interpretation and processing capabilities and basin modelling software) and palynology, organic petrology, core interpretation and geochemistry laboratories
  • world-class data banks of geological, geophysical and multibeam bathymetric information
  • field programs conducted in coastal and offshore regions of Eastern Canada and the Arctic - stretching from the Gulf of Maine to the Beaufort Sea and including the Great Lakes

The science program is delivered through the :

  • Marine Environmental Geoscience Subdivision that studies geologic processes and sediment properties along the coast, in the nearshore, and on the continental margin to determine environmental processes and impacts of development.
  • Marine Resources Geoscience Subdivision that researches the tectonic and structural framework for the evolution of continental margins and oceanic basins, and investigates the geology, basin structure, tectonic evolution, and hydrocarbon generation of sedimentary basins to evaluate their oil and gas potential

Please note that GSC Atlantic was formerly the Atlantic Geoscience Centre. In February of 1995, the Atlantic Geoscience Centre officially changed it's name to the Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic) - GSCA . This was a change in name only.


 

Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO)

The Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic) is co-located at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Visit the Bedford Institute of Oceanography website.